The Department of Agriculture-Cordillera through its High Value Crops Program and the Regional Agriculture Fisheries and Information Section launched the school-on-air (SOA) Program on Strawberry Production and Management in Mountain Province.
The SOA on strawberry covers the five strawberry-growing municipalities namely Bontoc, Sagada, Sabangan, Bauko, and Besao.
Enrollees are strawberry growers and individuals who are interested to grow strawberry in the covered areas.
Face-to-face and virtual orientations were conducted in consideration of the existing travel and activity restrictions in the municipalities.
The face-to-face launching and orientation was conducted in Bontoc on Sept. 4.
Since the other municipalities have stricter travel restrictions especially for those coming from areas with high number of Covid-19 positive cases, a virtual pre-orientation was held on Sept. 2 to orient the partner local government units particularly the municipal agriculturists and the municipal high value crops coordinators about the SOA implementation and monitoring design.
The partner LGUs will conduct a localized SOA orientation with the farmer-enrollees.
“Strawberry can be a good source of income so let us give our full support and thank DA together with the Office of the Municipal Agriculturist who are endeavored to revive strawberry production in the municipality,” Bontoc Mayor Franklin C. Odsey said.
The topics to be discussed under the SOA on strawberry include introduction to strawberry, berry production, runner production, pest and disease management, harvesting and marketing, and cost and return analysis among others.
The SOA is being implemented with Radyo Sagada as the partner station for the broadcast of materials. – Janice Agrifino
April 26, 2024
